Well, my upgrade to Win7 finally arrived. Now installed, and at first, I noticed a decrease in performance. Actually had some stuttering which I didn't have before. I tried many things, but eventually got it all straightened out by renaming my old config and starting a new config. Then I had to tweak my NHancer settings. But the best thing was to delete the 191.07 drivers and go back to the 190.02's. Now all is well again, but I really got concerned. You know....if it works, don't mess with it. Vista 64 was running perfectly, but Windows 7 was too tempting. I had to go for it. Thankfully, after a day of tweaking and trying my default flight over and over with ASA running, I got back to my comfort level. I'm also wondering if Affinity Mask makes a difference with Windows 7. Please advise!Stan

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm still waiting on my copy to arrive in the mail. I'm probably going to install it right away, as Vista has been giving me quite a few problems since I installed it. Nothing critical, but enough little things to really be irritating. Normally I'm not one to jump on an upgrade right away, but Vista has to go.

Well, my upgrade to Win7 finally arrived. Now installed, and at first, I noticed a decrease in performance. Actually had some stuttering which I didn't have before. I tried many things, but eventually got it all straightened out by renaming my old config and starting a new config. Then I had to tweak my NHancer settings. But the best thing was to delete the 191.07 drivers and go back to the 190.02's. Now all is well again, but I really got concerned. You know....if it works, don't mess with it. Vista 64 was running perfectly, but Windows 7 was too tempting. I had to go for it. Thankfully, after a day of tweaking and trying my default flight over and over with ASA running, I got back to my comfort level. I'm also wondering if Affinity Mask makes a difference with Windows 7. Please advise!Stan

Hi Stan, My new build is in my signature. I'm using the 191.07 drivers and so far I have been amazed with FSX performance without any tweaks at all. I'm getting great framerates and smooth flying with even the Level D 767. The only thing I havent maxed is water settings which I really dont care about anyway. I'm still in the process of reinstalling everything on both FSX and the PC and havent gotten around to installing My TrafficX yet. I'm having a hard time believing the difference between my E6850 overclocked to 3.6 and the I7 860 just running in the Turbo Mode. I see a huge difference, perhaps it's because of DX 11?? Craig

I made the jump today! I thought that I would just wait until another Windows revision comes out, but I saw the price at microcenter and heard so many great things about it I couldn't resist. I did a clean install instead of an upgrade (and some people say there is a way to clean install with an upgrade edition?). When it booted up for the first time I was amazed. Everything is smoother, cleaner, faster its just amazing. The taskbar is more organized and easy to use. Windows loads in about 30 seconds from the windows boot to the desktop, all my games go a lot smoother. Crysis had a 2-5 FPS boost in most areas. Haven't tried FSX but many people have said that they got a 10+ FPS boost and I'm expecting similar results. Many users have reported improvements even when they choose to upgrade and not clean install! If you don't have 7 your missing out! It's a great investment and even the small features alone increase productivity. Just the update of the taskbar made doing work a lot easier and faster, and even everyday use. I can drag the icons around to organize them anyway I want them. The notification icons on the right side of the screen can be hidden in a small menu to increase space, running multiple windows/multitasking is now less of a hassle. It just makes work and using the PC so much easier. I had about 8 windows running on my pc and it only took up 2 spaces on the taskbar!To the OP, I don't see why your installation might be running slower unless you had many files on your PC and did an upgrade. Did you delete the fsx.cfg and let it rebuild? This is a must for a new OS. Make sure your running the latest Win 7 drivers as well, and remember to use a defragment. I recommend that you use Ultimate Defrag. This program beats all the others IMHO and its free!http://download.cnet...4-10582157.html

See You In The Skies...
gman!"Impossible things are simply those which so far have never been done." - Elbert Hubbard

My advice, as it helped me a ton was to consult with Nick Needham's FSX Tweak guide over at Simforums. I noticed you mentioned "affinnity mask" and such and well as using NHancer. There is not one tweak he mentions including those two subjects that has not been invaluable for my set-up. Maybe you'd rather do it yourself or don't like his ideas, but that's my 2 cents. He's the one that put me onto 64-bit computing. Maybe you've been on that solution to OOM errors way before now and I'm a rank novice!Randy Jura, KPDXGigabyte EP43-UD3LIntel Quad 2 Core (Q9550)GeForce 8800 GTS4 Gig 667 Kingston RAMFSX SP2+ Accel + FEX + GEX + too many others to count!

I did a clean install instead of an upgrade (and some people say there is a way to clean install with an upgrade edition?).

I purchased the Home Premium family pack which gives me 3 upgrade licenses at almost the same price as one ordinary Home Premium upgrade which is an extraordinary price. However, I couldn't wipe the hard disk and install the upgrade like you could when upgrading to Windows XP (with XP you had to momentarily insert an older windows installation disk to prove you were egible to update). Instead I had to keep my existing XP installation and install Win7 over that, which left the whole Program Files-folder from XP on the disk and unable to remove it!I have spoken to some very friendly Microsoft support technicians who said I should be able to first install without entering a serial number, which should cause a totally clean install and then update with my license number. Will try it tonight since I really want it to be as clean as possible. Then I'll let Truespace do its magic and create a virtual image of the partition for future use!

You definitely can do a clean install with the upgrade version. "Upgrade" only refers to the license. With an upgrade, you are upgrading a previous full license (which is why it is cheaper). You can do a clean format and install from this version. You don't need to validate windows if any older version is on the drive.When you boot up off the CD you should get the option of a clean install or upgrade. Also when you get to the screen where it shows your drives, you have to hit advanced (IIRC) then it gives you the option to format the drive (it is kind of hidden for some reason).

You definitely can do a clean install with the upgrade version. "Upgrade" only refers to the license. With an upgrade, you are upgrading a previous full license (which is why it is cheaper). You can do a clean format and install from this version. You don't need to validate windows if any older version is on the drive.When you boot up off the CD you should get the option of a clean install or upgrade. Also when you get to the screen where it shows your drives, you have to hit advanced (IIRC) then it gives you the option to format the drive (it is kind of hidden for some reason).

The clean install option you get when booting the CD is what I use to get Win7 up and running but it doesn't mean (for me) it wipes all the information from the partition - it keeps the Program and Windows folder but renames them to Program1 and windows(old). I also used the advanced option and formatted the drive, then installed Windows 7 but then my serial number wasn't accepted - only when I already have XP installed will it approve my serial number! Well, I will try my other option tonight installing without entering the serial number and then when everything is up and running update with my serial. Anyway, fter all it's not a huge a problem if I am stuck with the Program1 folder - I guess it will just sit there without interfering with windows.

Installed W7 Ultimate 64 a couple of days ago, but switched back to Vista Ultimate 64 after 24 hours. While W7 is nice, it's not so nice for my FSX setup. First of all, I have massive stutters with my 285GTX, and blue screens with my MPanel. More than this, I noticed a severe FPS decrease compared to my optimized Vista installation.So far, I don't think I will reinstall W7 anytime soon.

The clean install option you get when booting the CD is what I use to get Win7 up and running but it doesn't mean (for me) it wipes all the information from the partition - it keeps the Program and Windows folder but renames them to Program1 and windows(old). I also used the advanced option and formatted the drive, then installed Windows 7 but then my serial number wasn't accepted - only when I already have XP installed will it approve my serial number! Well, I will try my other option tonight installing without entering the serial number and then when everything is up and running update with my serial. Anyway, fter all it's not a huge a problem if I am stuck with the Program1 folder - I guess it will just sit there without interfering with windows.

The option to format is there, but hidden. You need to hit advanced just to see the option. You're probably ok though. You can move those files out to an external drive or delete them once you know they are not needed. I never understand why they hide things like that in an interface.

Installed W7 Ultimate 64 a couple of days ago, but switched back to Vista Ultimate 64 after 24 hours. While W7 is nice, it's not so nice for my FSX setup. First of all, I have massive stutters with my 285GTX, and blue screens with my MPanel. More than this, I noticed a severe FPS decrease compared to my optimized Vista installation.So far, I don't think I will reinstall W7 anytime soon.

That's interesting. I just got most of the way through my FSX reinstallation last night and will be up and flying tonight. Overall my system feels more "snappy" overall, but that could always be just from a clean format and install, not Win7 itself. Did you copy over your FSX.cfg or start clean?

Installed W7 Ultimate 64 a couple of days ago, but switched back to Vista Ultimate 64 after 24 hours. While W7 is nice, it's not so nice for my FSX setup. First of all, I have massive stutters with my 285GTX, and blue screens with my MPanel. More than this, I noticed a severe FPS decrease compared to my optimized Vista installation.

That's unfortunate!I don't like to advocate on the part of software, and I'm a believer in using what works and is preferable to you, but I want to share some thoughts to perhaps help you leverage your W7 investment, instead of having it collect dust. I mean, you bought it, so it'd be a shame to let it go to waste! Did you perform a clean installation or an in-place update of Vista?In-place installs often result in sub-par performance system-wide. Due to the differences in the OS, and files that may get left behind, you often hear of in-place updates causing instability, slower performance, weird compatibility problems, and other situations out of the norm. While the Vista-to-W7 update is BETTER than the XP-to-Vista update experience, it still isn't on par with a true, clean installation. A clean install purges out your previous operating system and installed programs, and lets you start fresh. This blank slate of a computer is nearly always a better starting point, especially for MSFS. It helps settle down rogue drivers, and lets you reconfigure and re-tweak your machine. The downside is that it takes time and effort to do. It can be a daunting task reinstalling programs, games, addons... but in the end, I've found it always to be worth that time. I've found that after my clean installation of W7, FSX actually performs smoother than it did under Vista. I can't say that I see any substantive FPS improvements, but it seems the general system smoothness is improved.If you get a free weekend down the road, try it out. It sounds like you have a good backup plan in place (*if you were able to drop back to your Vista install), so it can't hurt to try!-Greg

Have been using the 64 bit RC since May. My FSX performs better than FS9 ever did. And that is very surprising. I love W7. It's the OS we should have had 5 years ago. Combined with i7, FSX is incredible. I am flying the PMDG MD-11, VC/TrackIR mode, into Heathrow Extreme with 25-30 fps.

Regarding a clean install: of course I did. Never do anything else :-)I will give W7 a second chance via dual boot. Have enough HD space for this (4 drives in the computer), so I can experiment with the setup). I'll let you know my findings...

Everyone that uses Windows 7 should do a clean install unless they have not had their PC for a very long time, or keep it very optimized. It honestly does not take a very long time to reinstall all programs even if you have add-ons. Just make sure to backup everything then if you want to save a list of start menu programs to remind you of the programs you had later, you can do this...Note this is for Windows Vista, I do not remember Windows XP to well. To Do this on XP everything is the same except getting the windows start menu folder open.1. Go to Start > Run > and type "cmd" and hit 'OK'. If you did not configure the start menu to display run press the "windows" key and "R" then type "cmd" and hit 'OK'2. Click the start button, and put your mouse over "All Programs". Right click "All Programs" then select "Open All Users".3. Open the "Programs" directory. Next at the top of your screen you should see the address for the start menu folders. Copy and paste this in notepad.4. In the CMD or "Command Prompt" window type "cd" (Change Directory - this will change the directory of command prompt). Next hit the space bar, then right click any black space and hit "Paste" DO NOT PRESS CTRL + V, it does not work in command prompt. The line should look something like this but may be a little different "cd C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu". 5. Hit enter!6. Type "Dir /b>C:\list.txt" or if you are leet you can copy and paste this in command prompt! . You can change the "C:\list.txt" of the line to wherever you want the text file to be saved.7. Hit "Enter" on the keyboard. When a new blank line comes up the task is complete. To get the Program List if you entered "C\list.txt", go to your C drive and look for a file called "list.txt".8. Print it off so you don't forget what programs you had!

See You In The Skies...
gman!"Impossible things are simply those which so far have never been done." - Elbert Hubbard

The clean install option you get when booting the CD is what I use to get Win7 up and running but it doesn't mean (for me) it wipes all the information from the partition - it keeps the Program and Windows folder but renames them to Program1 and windows(old). I also used the advanced option and formatted the drive, then installed Windows 7 but then my serial number wasn't accepted - only when I already have XP installed will it approve my serial number! Well, I will try my other option tonight installing without entering the serial number and then when everything is up and running update with my serial.

There are three documented ways to work around the problem of an upgrade key not being accepted during a CD boot "clean install" (no OS on drive). I won't post here but it's easy to find.scott s..